Peanut Progress

Peanut still receives physical therapy through First Steps.  Last month his PT downgraded his therapy to twice a month instead of once a week.  He's reached the point where he needs less sessions with the PT because he's progressing really well.

Some of the skills he was lacking in a month ago he now does with ease, like just being able to go from sitting to his tummy, and quickly 'army crawl' over to the couch and pull himself up to stand.  He practices this all the time, and you can tell how happy it makes him that he doesn't need help to do it.  He's not as fussy throughout the day because he's getting more confidence.  Also, he's finally really good at getting in the actual crawling position on all fours, whereas before he would be on his tummy reaching up for the couch to try and pull up to stand.  He can finally stand up on his own in his crib! - he gets on all fours, grabs onto the bars and stands right up.  He does it easily, and he loves to do it over and over when I put him down for naps - I love it because he's practicing and building up his strength.  The day has finally arrived where he's standing in his crib when I go to get him up!! 

At his last PT session she worked with him on being able to stand up in the middle of the floor on his own,  to sit down without holding onto anyone or anything, and to crawl up onto the couch.  He's doing really good.  He's finding out he can do this stuff and he practices all the time.  So many things that come easily to a lot of babies / toddlers were more challenging for him - so for us the smallest bit of progress is really exciting.  Some things that seems so trivial to other parents are huge to us.

This video just shows him pulling up to stand (which he does with much more ease now), and then plopping down to sit without falling back or to the side.  Believe it or not, this was a big thing.  You can tell he's really trying hard to sit down!  But he can do it now.  It's been so cool to see him progress from where he was several months ago  :)  

Also, something kind of funny....  he still hasn't been crawling on all fours, but when he's in his crib he gets on all fours and crawls down to the other end.  So we'll see how much longer it is before he starts finally crawling on hands and knees when he's out of his bed.  That little rascal! 

Peanut Dancing in Circles

Normally when Peanut "dances" he does some jivey little head boppin' thing and goes up and down like he's really got the beat - but today we had the music on and I said "can you dance?" and he turned around in a circle.  I don't recall seeing him do that before and it was kinda cute.  So here's yet ANOTHER incredibly exciting video of our fun times :)

Rocking Horse

Drop Lego, Get Mad

This video makes me laugh every time I watch it!  First of all because of how he always pulls the blue hat so LOW on his head.  He'll walk around like that, peeking out from underneath... he knows he's being silly because when I fix it so it's not covering up his face he just pulls it right back down, smiling as he walks away. 

I also have to laugh because of his hot little temper sometimes.  In this video he gets ticked off because he was happily trying to put two Lego blocks together, but he dropped one.  His dramatics are pretty funny here - check it out.   I can only pray that his patience grows as HE grows  :)   Poor little frustrated guy..... but it's just so funny sometimes. 

Peanut Making Progress

This video shows Peanut, yes, STILL sporting his bucket for a hat these days.....every day.  But more importantly it shows him squatting down to play with a toy WITHOUT holding onto the couch.  I've also seen him squat all the way down in the middle of the room and pick up small toys or his hat.  For him this is really a big thing!  He walks just fine, but has always held on to something for stability when he wants to grab things on the floor. 

His physical therapist has been working with him on several things, and getting him to crawl on hands and knees is one of them;  at this point he still does the 'army crawl'.  We are also working with him on crawling over to the couch and pulling himself up to standing, and he's doing really well.  He needs very little assistance with pulling himself up.  He's slow but steady with his progress and I'm always so excited when he does something new;  and so is he - a lot of the time he'll smile and clap for himself.  Great job Peanut - we love you!!

Cute Dancin' From Ladybug

Dancing with her baby, boppin' her head to the music.....

Hats for Peanut

Ladybug doing some dancing

The first video is the one I mentioned on our other blog....however I have to say she's not dancing to the movie Cricket On The Hearth like I thought - she's watching The Backyardigans on Nick Jr.  She was having a good time.  In the second one Cricket On The Hearth is playing.....

Fun Toy For Peanut

Peanut - On The Mend

On December 27th Peanut ended up in the Emergency Room, and was later admitted into the hospital, due to a pretty heavy duty allergic reaction and high fever.  It's a REALLY long story.  He was almost unrecognizable, at the worst stage of the reaction, due to his eyes being swelled shut, his ears being bright red and completely swollen, the rest of his body being very swollen and covered with large crazy shaped, bright red blotches - all over his head, arms, legs, belly, back, neck.....his feet were so swollen he could not wear his shoes for about 5 days.  In addition to all the blood and urine labs, they also did a spinal tap in the ER to rule out meningitis.  Hubby and I were absolutely horrified seeing him like this, and it was so scary not knowing what was happening to him.

He was released from the hospital late morning the next day, and continued to get better with each day.  The swelling is gone, the rash and fever are gone.  He had gained approx. two pounds due to all the swelling, and our pediatrician told me to keep an eye on his weight, that it should decrease rather quickly once the reaction / rash was completely over.  He lost exactly two pounds in 24 hours - which is wonderful.  Had the swelling not gone away soon his kidney function would have needed to be tested next.  We are SOOOOOO thankful he seems to be back to normal.  Thank God.

This video was taken at home one day after he was released from the hospital.  He looks SO MUCH better in the video than he looked in the hospital.  At his worst he truly looked like a different baby.  Very scary.